Genuine Love – Psalm 50

“A Psalm of Asaph.” Psalm 50:1

In 2 Chronicles 29:30, God’s people praised Him with “words of David and of Asaph the seer.” Asaph penned Psalm 50 and likely set it to music as well. [1]

In Psalms 50:1-23, God instructs us about worship. He exposes hypocrisy. He warns the wicked. He promises to save those who praise Him. [2]

“The Mighty One, God the Lord, has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth.” Psalm 50:1-2

The Lord God Almighty calls us (all of us) to listen to His voice from the beginning of the day unto it’s end. In John 15:4, Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Close to our Good Shepherd, listening to His voice, following Him is safest place to be.

God shines forth in perfect beauty out of Zion. Zion is where God often spoke to and through His prophets. Thus, portions of the Bible were recorded and published there. Zion is where God’s Son, Jesus Messiah, would die and resurrect for the redemption of the world. Yes, out of Zion God shines forth, even from the morning unto the end of the day.

In Jeremiah 7:25, the Lord said to the people of Zion, “Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.” As the prophets released the Word of the Lord to people, they were as the rising sun in the midst of darkness.

“Our God shall come and shall not keep silent. A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. ‘Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.’ Let the heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge. Selah!” Psalm 50:3-6

The imagery of Psalm 50:3-6 is that of God giving His Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. According to Exodus 19:16-19, the descent of God onto Mount Sinai was accompanied by a thick cloud, loud thunder, flashes of lightning, a growing, loud blast of a trumpet, and fire. God’s Law helps His people to discern right from wrong. [3]

God gathered His people together. He made a covenant with them by a sacrifice. In the Old Covenant times, the blood of bulls, goats and doves were offered to atone for people’s sin. In the New Covenants times (now), the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. Removal of sin proceeds the flow of good communication between us and God. The removal of sin by Christ is the righteousness which “the heavens declare.” God is the Judge and His Son is our Redeemer. According to Deuteronomy 33:2, “The Lord came from Sinai... He came with ten thousands of saints. From His hand came a fiery law for them.” Who are these saints? Deuteronomy 33:3 says, “Yes, He loves the people. All His saints are in Your hand. They sit down at Your feet. Everyone receives Your words.” The saints are His disciples. They, unlike others, enjoy sitting at His feet and learning from Him as Mary of Bethany did in Luke 10:39.

In Psalms 50:5, the Lord says, “Gather my saints together unto Me.” In Mark 6:7, Jesus called twelve men to be with Him and to send them out. In Hebrews 10:25, the Lord says not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some, but to exhort one another, and so much the more, as you see the day [of His return] approaching.”

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Paul wrote of the coming of the Lord, saying, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” In John 14:3, Jesus assured us, “I will come again and receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also.” He wants us, who believe in Him, to be with Him forever.

In Psalms 50:6, the heavens declare God’s righteousness. In Revelation 19:2, a great multitude in heaven say with a loud voice, “True and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” In due season, God will repay those who have violently violated His Law and put His servants to death.

“Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God! I will not justify you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are continually before Me. I will not take a bull from your house, nor goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you. For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?” Psalm 50:7-13

According to the Jamieson-Fausset Brown Commentary, they gave to God His own with a degrading view of Him as needing it. According to Matthew Henry’s Commentary, “They took pride in them, and hoped by their offerings to procure a dispensation for their lusts.” In other words, they wanted God’s forgiveness to serve as a free pass to sin. They assumed that God was legally bound to accept their offerings. As though God was a debtor to them. God did not need their “middleman” services. He did not need them to feed Him. Everything that they sacrificed to Him belonged to Him.

God wants our love. The first and great commandment is to love God. When we sin, we break covenant with God. We fracture our relationship with Him. Asking God to forgive our sin is to express pain that we sinned against Him. Asking God to forgive our sin is to express our sincere desire to have a fully restored love relationship with Him once again.

“Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” Psalms 50:14-15

God delights in thanksgiving. He enjoys covenant-keepers. He says to such, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you,, and you shall glorify Me!” When we are in a right relationship with God, He has no misgivings about anointing us to shine for Him.

In Hebrews 13:15, Paul wrote, “Therefore by Him [Jesus] let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name.”

“But to the wicked God says: ‘What right have you to declare My statutes, or take My covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast My Words behind you? When you saw a thief, you consented with him and have been a partaker with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done, and I kept silent. You thought that I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver: whoever offers praise glorifies Me, and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.” Psalm 50:16-23

In Psalm 50:16, God addresses those who use religion to coverup evil in their hearts. Some think that Psalm 50:16-23 speaks prophetically of the Pharisees. They masked their exploitation of God and people with religious tapestry and vocabulary.

In the 1500’s, God revealed to Martin Luther via the Scriptures that Christ did everything necessary to restore us sinners to a right relationship with God. We don’t save ourselves. God saves us. God saves us by graciously placing the merits of Christ into our account when we simply believe in Him and profess Him with our mouths as our Lord and Savior.

“Martin Luther objected to Pope Leo X largely due to his exploitation of people through the sale of indulgences. Indulgences were an unbiblical practice that falsely guaranteed the remission of sins for money.” [5]

Hypocrites are common to all religious and political groups. Evil people use shiny lures for their self-serving ambitions. In 2 Corinthians 11:14, Paul wrote, “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.


In Psalm 50:16-23, God describes religious imposters as thieves, adulterers, liars, and slanderers of their own brothers. He tells them that He has been watching them. They falsely assumed that God was like them. God promises to rebuke them and set them straight. He warns them, “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.”

In 2 Peter 3:7-9, Peter had a prophetic word. He wrote, “The heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

The Lord suffers long with hypocrites because He wants them to be saved. In Matthew 24:48-51, Jesus said that hypocrites end up “where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That is for all eternity! Thus, the Lord suffers long with them. In fact, in the Gospels, Jesus often spoke with the Pharisees about their need to repent and believe in Him. They repaid Him with crucifixion, but from the cross He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Praise God! He is able and does convert fake lovers into genuine lovers via Christ. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were part of the hypocritical council that called for the crucifixion of Christ, but at the end of the Gospels we find them serving Him. [5] In Philippians 3:5-8, Paul testified that he was a Pharisee but that he counted that former life as rubbish compared to his new life of knowing Christ. In Philippians 3:9, Paul wrote, “I want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”

“Dear Heavenly Father, please forgive us and cleanse our hearts from hypocrisy. Please Holy Spirit flood our hearts until they overflow with genuine love for God and for our neighbor. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.”



[1] Matthew Henry’s Commentary
[2] Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary
[3] Matthew Henry’s Commentary
[4] worldhistory.org/article/1902/medieval-indulgence--martin-luther/
[5] Matthew 27:57–60; Mark 15:42–46; Luke 23:50–53; John 19:38–42